Zsolnay was born on April 19, 1828, in Pécs and studied at Vienna's Polytechnical High School.

[1] He was able to attract talented artists to work for him, and under his directorship the small family-owned company grew into a world-renowned enterprise.

With Vince Wartha [hu], Zsolnay discovered the eosin process that gives articles an iridescent glaze in multiple colors.

Pyrogranite is a ceramic building material that he introduced and that became popular with the architects of the Hungarian Art Nouveau movement.

He displayed his products at several World expositions, and was honored with the French Légion d'honneur and the Order of Franz Joseph in recognition of his artistic work.As a designer, he was major employer for visual artists like Ármin Klein, and his doughters Terez and Julia as well as Sándor Apáti Abt, and several others.